Report: Jon Tester Used Lobbyist, Industry Officials to Draft Bill to Soften Hemp Regulations

marijuana plant / Jon Tester
JACK TAYLOR/AFP via Getty Images/Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Jacob Bliss
Washington, DC

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) used industry officials to “help” craft legislation that “would cut red tape for farmers who grow hemp,” according to Politico.

Interviews conducted by Politico with six hemp advocates, company officials, and Senate aides, as well as emails obtained by the publication, indicated that the Industrial Hemp Act of 2023 was “constructed” by “outside advocates,” such as hemp lobbyists and businesses.

Tester’s aide told Politico that the senator’s office wrote that bill with the help from the nonpartisan Senate Office of the Legislative Counsel after “a Montana-based hemp business” reached out to get help with a problem last year.

“As a third-generation Montana farmer, Jon Tester will always fight to do what’s best for his state,” said Eli Cousin, a spokesperson for Tester, told Politico.

“After hearing directly from Montana small business owners who expressed that government red tape was putting unnecessary burdens on their operations, he did what he always does,” Cousin added. “[He] took their feedback with him and worked across the aisle to find a solution. He’ll keep fighting until this bipartisan bill becomes law.”

However, emails obtained by Politico appear to tell a different story.

One of the emails reportedly indicated executives received a “word-for-word early look at the bill” that would later be introduced by Tester — Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) — that suggested the Democrats office had been in more than a “direct collaboration” better his office and hemp industry officials. Politico explained:

By this February, Tester’s office said, it had been working for a year on the legislation slashing regulations for hemp growers. That month Courtney Moran, who serves as the chief legislative strategist at Agricultural Hemp Solutions, emailed a legislative assistant for Tester, as well as Morgan Tweet, co-founder of that Montana-based industrial hemp company that contacted Tester’s team, IND HEMP; Erica Stark, the executive director of the National Hemp Association; and Cort Jensen, an attorney for the Montana Department of Agriculture.

Politico noted that one subject line from Moran said “CONFIDENTIAL – Industrial Hemp Act, 2023,” and included an attached PDF document that was the legislation’s text that Tester and Braun ultimately introduced. Moran acknowledged a “note” to Jensen and thanked him for bringing the “team” together at the Montana Department of Agriculture earlier that week. “We greatly appreciate everyone’s feedback and insight,” Moran said.

“Attached is the current (and hopefully final!) draft bill language,” Moran also wrote in an email, according to Politico, while noting that the bill’s language had already been sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for “final review” the week before.

“Appreciate you letting us know if you have any questions or comments after reading the bill,” Moran added while making it clear she didn’t want the content of the email to be released. “PLEASE KEEP THIS CONFIDENTIAL at this time, and not share outside of the Department. Really appreciate you!”

Politico added:

It is unclear whether or how Jensen and the hemp industry insiders replied to the email. The document obtained by POLITICO did not include any follow-up. A USDA spokesperson said Tester’s office had sent the legislation to them, not industry officials.

Moran is registered as a lobbyist on behalf of IND HEMP, disclosing this yearand last that she lobbied on the issue of industrial hemp to the Senate  and USDA. One of her specific lobbying issues cited in 2023 is Tester and Braun’s Industrial Hemp Act.

A Braun spokesperson, who spoke with Politico under the condition of anonymity, said the senator’s office negotiated the legislation’s cosponsorship with the Democrat’s team and implied that Braun’s office was uncomfortable with how much the “advocates” appeared to be involved with the process:

[O]ur chief of staff called the chair of one of these advocacy groups to tell them we were negotiating directly with the other office and told them frankly we did not want them involved in our process. We support this bill because it doesn’t make sense for industrial hemp crops grown in Indiana to go through the same testing and sampling as cannabinoid hemp.

The revelation of this story comes as Tester is running for reelection.

Notably, while it appears a lobbyist helped Tester write the legislation, according to a resurfaced clip from Tester’s 2012 election, the senator slammed his 2012 opponent’s connection to lobbyists.

“We’ve got congressman Rehberg who hit $25,000 of lobbyists’ money in his own report,” Tester said during a debate with Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) in 2012.

“Somebody who said he made a mistake when he ran for Congress should have been a lobbyist and depends upon lobbyists for the decisions he makes on this country,” Tester added at the time. “I depend upon Montanans. There’s where the difference is.”

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